Starship Traveller (book)
|references=343 |authors=Steve Jackson |illustrator=Peter Andrew Jones |coverillustrator=Peter Andrew Jones |year=September 1 1983 |number=4 |ISBN=ISBN 0-14-031637-X |prevbookp=The Forest of Doom |nextbookp=City of Thieves |wcoverillustrator=Chris Moore |wyear=2005 |wnumber=22 |wISBN=ISBN 1-84046-552-2 |prevbookw=Eye of the Dragon |nextbookw=Freeway Fighter |pufimage= |wizimage= }} Starship Traveller is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Steve Jackson, illustrated by Peter Andrew Jones and originally published in 1983 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2005. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 4th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-031637-X) and 22nd in the modern Wizard series (ISBN 1-84046-552-2). Creation Background Blurb Starship Traveller is set in the distant future, with the player taking the role of a starship commander whose ship and crew are sucked through a and into an unknown quadrant of space. The player's mission from this point is to find a means to return home, collecting clues from several different planets in pursuit of this goal. Rules The book in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. (see Game System) Unique Rules *''Starship Traveller'' employs weapons strength (1d6 plus 6) and shields for the ship Traveller. *stamina can only be restored when the text allows the player to do so, or when the team return to the Traveller at the end of visiting a planet. In this case each member of the visiting team may regain 2 stamina points. This only applies to the original version of the Science, Medical, Engineering, and Security officers. If they die and are replaced by junior officers in the course of the adventure then this two point restoration no longer holds true. Equipment List No list of equipment is given for the start of the adventure. Cover and Illustrations Covers The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by Peter Andrew Jones. When the book was republished by Wizard the cover was re-worked by Chris Moore. #Price of 1st Impression #Price of 12th Impression Illustrations Intertextual References Other Media Main Characters Further Notes *13 instant failures, 1 victory, plus death by Stamina loss or bad Luck. *''Starship Traveller'' deviates from the Fighting Fantasy norm in a number of ways. It was the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook to feature a setting, as opposed to the more traditional , and it was also the first to provide the player with multiple characters - the player is required to keep track of the relevant statistics for several crew members as well as the their own character, the captain. As the book featured extensive travel by starship, it also employed the first vehicle combat system in the series. However a reader can successfully complete the book without ever having to roll dice. *The main body of the adventure is made up of only 340 references rather than the usual 400. Three additional references provide the rules for the various types of combat available in the book. Reference 341 deals with for ship-to-ship combat, 342 deals with hand-to-hand comabt and 343 deals with phaser combat. Once combat is successfully concluded the player returns to the referring section. *The book contains many similarities to . The crew uses transporter-like devices to visit planets and both they and the starship have weapons like those seen on Star Trek. The organization of the crew is also reminiscent of that used on the series. *At the time of publication, a mild controversy arose when it was alleged that the book was intended as a 'cash in' on the successful RPG system (a US-based system that nonetheless used the British spelling rather than the variant). Steve Jackson has stated in interviews that Traveller was one of his favorite roleplaying games. * Jackson dedicated the book to every single member of Games Workshop. Additionally, several of the staff were written into the adventure as characters whose names were based on Games Workshop people.25th Anniversary Edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain pages 225 See Also *Fighting Fantasy External Links *Character Sheet References * * * Official sites: * * Magazines: * Starship Traveller 04 22